NEWSLETTERS 2023
June
As we approach the end of 2023, it has been 5 years since I took my entrepreneurship education. Back then I was “First Mover” because the only place you could find any kind of second-hand clothes, was in recycle shops. The word ”redesign” didn’t even pop up, when I Googled it. Hence the name FieFit Redesign.
During and after the Covid-19 pandemic, upcycling/redesign has become very common in our Danish society. Both from a professional as well as a hobby perspective. And that makes me realize, that my FieFit Redesigns are only one in a million now. Even though I believe it’s very good for our climate that so many can see the same advantages as I did back then, I also have to admit, that I do not have the energy it takes to be present on all the social medias to the extent it will require, if I want to promote FieFit Redesigns.
Having said that I’m also saying goodbye with a smile after 5 instructive years. On the practical side I’ve gained a lot of experience redesigning clothes in many sizes, colours and fabrics. Mostly based on my own clothes, but also for some nice customers. I’ve had the chance to make some sweet and fun cushion covers, I’ve made custommade carbags, a computerbag and the last order, is to custommake two bags for the Porche-owner I’ve mentioned in previous Newsletters. Should he decide not to buy them, I will put them up for sale in my website and thereby also on Trendsales. Because, as you know, I’ve sold quite a lot of FieFit Redesigns on Trendsales, and I do hope that I will be able to sell the rest of my Redesigns through these channels.
As of today, and until the last FieFit Redesign has been sold, I will give you a 3-for-2 discount, ie. if you buy 3 FieFit Redesigns (incl. all knitwork) you will get the cheapest redesign for free 😊
However, this also means that this will be my last Newsletter.
When I’m saying goodbye with a smile, it’s also because I’ve learned so much about myself. Being fired at the age of 58, made me feel that I was much too young to retire. I had to redefine my life, find a new identity. And I know it sounds like clichés, but nevertheless, it was how I felt at the time.
The first step towards a new ”me”, was through a proces at AS3; a company specialized in outplacement of employees.
Next step was a 4 months Entrepreneurship education, which made it clear to me, that I needed to work with my creative skills. My original plan was to register FieFit Redesign with CVR no and maybe even a small ApS. However, it soon became clear to me, that the right way for me was having FieFit Redesign as a hobby workshop.
During my notice period, my unemployment fund told me in no uncertain terms, that I would never be able to find a new job because of all my health issues, and that the only solution for me was to go on sickleave! A hard pill to swallow, especially since I’d taken care of myself for 41 years, with only a 4 month period without job. But obviously there was no other solution than to contact my municipality for help.
That decision ended as an ”annus horribilis” with Work Probation, humiliating meetings with a case manager who started by scolding me for allowing myself to take an entrepreneurial course on my own initiative!
It took me more than a year to get back on my feet again, until finally one day I felt ready to go out and profile FieFit Redesign and to show everybody, that I still had it in me 😊 And yes, your guess is spot on; then we were all hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, and mr. Svendsen and I went into selfimposed isolation for 1,5 year. I will not go into details concerning this period in time, because I know that it has taken a tow on each an everyone of us, and in various ways.
Luckily we’re now passed the pandemic, and today Covid-19 is considered a virus equal to Flue, at least in Denmark. Who would have guessed as much, when Mette Frederiksen closed down our country a little over 3 years ago?
Today I no longer have to prove myself to anyone or to myself. And THAT is huge.
I can safely say: ”Been there, done that”.
A wise woman told me to consider my retirement as a gift to myself after being 41 years in the jobmarket. And now I can and I will enjoy sitting in a comfy chair, or in my garden, with my knitwear and a good audiobook, enjoying summer and my freedom. In addition I will also enjoy looking into redesigning some of my own clothes for me, which I’ve put on hold for so long now. I know I want to redesign my 25th wedding anniversary dress to a skirt … I’m sure you’ve heard about the wardrobes that makes your clothes shrink, right? Maybe I’ll take on small tasks from family or friends like handsewing a name onto a christening gown (Winnie 😊) or making garden cushion covers (Käte 😊) etc.
Make no mistake, it will be made when I can find the time and energy amongst all my other activities. On the other hand, it will be free of charge because the orderbook is closed 😊 No more feeling guilty because I cannot finalize orders within a reasonable time, because I only have strength to work in my workshop for 1-1,5 hours a few times a week. Because even though my customers have been kind and patient, that has not prevented me from having huge expectations to myself.
During this spring I’ve started Pilates and Soft Yoga in our local fitnesscenter, while mr. Svendsen is working out in another room 😊
Before uploading this, my final Newsletter, I’ve updated my entire website in order to visualize that the order book is closed, but at the same time I make it clear that it’s still possible to buy my FieFit Redesigns. Either by dropping by my house, should you wish to try the clothes on for size before buying, or by “click and buy” using Trendsales secure payment- and terms of delivery. I still have a few bags and a snuggle ring for sale. In addition to FieFit Redesigns I have a total of 135 different things for sale right now. Worth a visit, if you ask me 😊
I will continue updating my DIY pages because I like keeping my braincells active, and besides I love working with my website in general. And you’re always welcome to contact me, should you want some advice for some of your own DIY projects.
Thank you for your interest throughout the years. Take care and I hope to be seeing you soon 😊
March
Headlines:
- discounts
- custom made to measure
- status carbags
- dish cloth for arthritic hands
- click and buy
- the sewing room
- other projects
- inspiration are free of charge
Discounts
As mentioned in my newsletter of last month, I now offer a buy-for-3-pay-for-2 discount. Instead of only offering it for February and March, you will now be able to get the discount until all my FieFit Redesigns are sold.
Last year I lowered all prices for my Redesigns significantly. This is also my reason for removing the 10% discount for my newsletter subscribers. And yes, I admit it might go against the trend, but an increase in the focus of redesigning and upcycling, has entailed a very large supply. This boom is mainly due to Covid-19 lock-down, and it is very good for our climate in general. And even though it makes me very proud to be a first-mover regarding redesigning, it doesn’t change the fact, that my wish to Redesing is, and always will be, a hobby. And nothing else. And to be quite honest, I must admit that neither my energy, nor my goal with Redesigning, are serious enough to be a part of this competition.
Custom made to measure
Instead, I’ve decided to focus more on my custommade bags, carbags, cushioncovers like THESE, snugglerings like THESE and garden cushioncovers. I have now purchased innermaterial for all my bags, which are both wind- and waterproof. This will give the bags the same fluffy and stiffening effect, as the ones I’m producing now. At the same time, it’s much easier to travel with more bags in the trunk, because you can adjust the size of bags to the size of your trunk. This also prevents from having wasted areas between the bags, as you are most likely to have with stiff suitcases or trolleys in your trunk.
I also find my bags very handy in a flight cabin; partly because it’s not as heavy as a trolley when you need to lift it up into the cabin compartment, and partly because it’s easier to make it fit amongst all the other bags.
Status carbags
As you can see on the picture below, my bags are really spacious. The measurements of this bag is: 45x45x15 cm, which fits perfectly with two besides each other and 2-3 on top of each other in a car like a Toyota Touring Sport, Stationcar. And my guess is, that it only differs a few cm between each car model. Otherwise, I’ll adjust after the measurements you want. When packing the bag with below content, it weighs 5,3 kg:
- 2 pair of long pants
- 1 sweater
- 1 summerjacket
- 7 T-shirts
- 7 pair of underpants
- 7 pair of socks
My intention is to produce the bag with shoulderstraps, as you see in the picture, and with an ordinary short handle. THIS will show you, how the bag is build. The price for the bag is 900 DKK. Half of the price covers materials and half is my fee.
Dish clots for arthritic hands
I’ve learned that the thicker the dish cloth, the easier it is to handle when you suffer from arthritic hands.
Normally I knit my dish clots, but it appears that the dish clot gets thicker and firmer, when crochetted. And it does not have to be that difficult. Especially if you, like me, have difficulties following knitting instructions. In that case I recommend that you try crochetting as shown on the picture below. I start with the common square a couple of rounds. Then I crochet rod masks in all available holes. When the dish clot has the desired size, I crochet one round with fixed stiches and I end up with a picot edge.
I use 50 grams of cotton yarn for one dish clot.
Much more inspiration and knitting patterns right HERE
Click and buy
Remember, that it’s possible to purchase my Redesigns by click and buy on my website. The link will direct you to my small boutique on Trendsales, and your items will be delivered by DAO or BRING at the price of 39 DKK.
You can also find a lot of other things, besides my FieFit Redesigns. Right now I have 147 things for sale. And remember, you can choose more than one at a time 😊
My sewing room
When I’m making my bags, I’ve discovered that it’s a huge help to iron before sewing. Phew, it meant a lot of running between my sewing room and our utility room. Then I moved my ironing board into my sewing room, and it became very crowded. Now I’ve replaced 3 sections of the bookcase into the hall, which has given me ample space for my ironing board. Svendsen then hung up to shelves above the ironing board, matching the bookcase section that remained in the sewing room. It’s really a good room now – come see for yourself 😊 Now I just need to find a way to hang all my zippers below the shelves.
Other projects
Now I’ve found the koncept for my bags, and I’ve gained a lot of experience. I only need to add zippers in the remaining 3 of our own shoulderbags, and then I’m prepared to proceed with the Porche-carbags.
I’ve also bought a lot of yarn on Trendsales, probably for another 2-3 knitted skirts.
One of my old short jersey skirts will be redesigned to a blouse. And the yarn to use is also purchased.
Much more to come about all this in the coming newsletters.
Inspiration is free of charge
You are most welcome to write and call me, if you need some inspiration for one of your own projects. I’m sure we can both learn from this
- www.fiefit.dk is also in english. Feel free to share my site with friends and family outside Denmark as I put a lot of effort and love into making the english pages.
- Registration and deregistration of my newsletters: Send a mail to: fiefit@outlook.com, or a text message to +45 4082 9038.
- Find me on Instagram and Trendsales too.
- Below you’ll find previous newsletters:
February 2023
Learn more about: onlineworkshops, status on carbags, sewing machine course, knitted skirts, 3-for-2 discount in February and March
3-for-2 discount
In February and march you can get 3 FieFit Redesigns for the price of 2. That means, that the cheepest one you choose, is for free. This discount is also to be used if you purchase any item from my little shop on Trendsales. If you’re not familiar with the Trendsales proces; I’ll give you a short introduction below.
Start by choosing one of my Redesigns from www.fiefit.dk. The link will transfer you to my Trendsales shop. Scroll further down the page, until you find my picture. Click on my picture, and now you will see my entire Trendsales shop. Today you’ll find 126 items in here, and this is much more than my Redesigns. By clicking on the pictures you want to purchase, a total amount will be shown. Here you can either accept the price, or you can deduct the price of the cheepest item you choose. Should you want to purchase more than 3 things, you can either suggest the amount you want to pay, or you can click on “kontakt” and then we will agree on a good price for your purchases. An extra bonus is that should you want to purchase for more than 500 DKK, then I’ll cover the 39 DKK which is the shipping cost.
Online workshops 2023
Well, well – I know we all change our minds from time to time. And I decided that I didn’t want to reserve every 4th Sunday as standard. Instead I invite you to contact me, and we’ll settle on a date together. Then you can coordinate with a group of friends you might have throughout Denmark, or maybe even also some abroad. Find more ideas about online workshops HERE.
Status carbags
I’m aware that I’m spending extra time on these carbags, because I want to do things my way. The reason being that I can only work a limited amount of time and also because I’m learning by doing. I’m worried that if I learn ”the proper way”, it will be at the expense of my creativity. And by that I mean, that I will loose the ability of making the quearky, different and fun results that I love making. Next step is to add om the shoulder strap, I’ve cut and ironed the fluffy fleece onto the fabric and only needs to sew it on the carbag. To be continued 😊
The proces so far has shown me the way to the coming carbags and I’ve also found another solution for the waterproof material, which saves me 2 layers compared to the technique I’m using now.
DIY-inspiration
I’ve just finalized my 4th knitted skirt and have started on the 5th. Pictures and knitting patterns on the DIY page.
Sewing machine course
As mentioned in the January Newsletter, I’ve attended a course regarding my new sewingmachine. It was very constructive and cozy because as it happens, we were only 2 participants. Which also meant that the course was directly aimed at our specific needs and questions. I can highly recommend you to take a look at the other courses they offer.
YouTube and TikTok
Nope, you don’t have to look for me on neither YouTube nor TikTok. To be honest, I cannot see myself amongst the other creative features. Maybe at a later stage, but as it is right now, I’d rather spend my time doing the things that I find funny and usefull.
www.fiefit.dk is also in english. Feel free to share my site with friends and family outside Denmark as I put a lot of effort and love into making the english pages.
Registration and deregistration of my newsletters: Send a mail to: fiefit@outlook.com, or a text message to +45 4082 9038.
Below you’ll find previous newsletters:
January
Read about:
onlineworkshops, taylormade bags, DIY-inspiration,
training seminar regarding sewing, FieFit in social medias
HAPPY NEW YEAR
I hope you’ve started the new year in a good way and that you can look into many exciting tasks and experiences for the new year to come. Personally I don’t think it’s been long since we learned how to write 2022, and yet, here we are at the beginning of 365 fresh and brand new days – and opportunities.
Workshops 2023
I have great expectations and hopes for my new online workshops, and I hope you will give it a try. I’m sure you will get a lot of DIY inspiration. More details about dates and times HERE. The first online workshop will take place Sunday, January 29th from 15.00-16.00 CET.
Subscribe either by fiefit@outlook.com or text me +45 4082 9038. When you have subscribed I’ll send you a link to click on when the time comes.
New production focus on my part
As you know, you can find me on Instagram, and wau, there are so many people upcycling/redesigning in all sorts of ways and areas. And quite a lot are describing there clothes as ”redesign”. I’m a bit flattered, to be honest, because back in 2018 when I was trying to find a good name for my new hobby, there were no Google hits on the word ”redesign”. Which is why I chose the name FieFit Redesign. And I cannot but praise that there are so many options today, if we want to buy either recycle, upcycle or redesigns. Thus taking better care of our planet.
Having said that, I must admit that it also makes it really tough to make my own unikke redesigns shine through.
Whereas I’ve now heard several times, that if you Google ”taylormade bags (that is the worthing in danish)”, then you’re most likely only to find FitFit Redesign 😉. Which is why I’ve redesigned my webpage in order to shift focus from upcycled clothes to taylormade bags, taylormade pillow- and cushion-covers and taylormade – or knitted – snugglerings.
My latest project is a taylormade storage-bag to fit the bottom of my wardrobe. I’m sure you recognize trying to fill up the space with big plastic boxes, plasticbags and much more. And afterwards there’s lots of empty spaces ie. waste of space. Just like the principle when you pack your car with trunks and sportsbags. So I decided to sew a mega big storage-bag, without handle though.
The outer material is furniture fabric. And unto the backside I’ve ironed fluffy “vlies” and on the inside I’ve added a layer of satin fabric from an old sheet. The storage-bag is opened by a zipper on the top. In this we now store all our pillows, and no waste of space. The bottom of the wardrobe is now used till the last inch.
You are still able to find my redesigned recycled clothes, but I’ve decided to put the production on hold for a while. In order to visualize my new focus, I’ve also redesigned my web page. I hope you like it: www.fiefit.dk
DIY inspiration
Besides taylormade bags etc, I’ve also decided to focus more on inspirering you to DIY. For this reason you will find lots more DIY inspiration on my web page. And for that purpose I do hope to meet a lot of creative and fun people in my online workshops.
Instruction to my new sewingmachine
By the end of this month, I’ll attend a seminar at Symaskineshoppen in Roskilde in order to learn more about my new sewingmachine. Even though I think I’ve learned a lot all by myself, I look forward to having a lot of demonstration in how to use all the facilities 100%.
Twitter, YouTube and TikTok
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, I must admit, that his changes and his approach to the use of Twitter is far far away from my values. As a consequence I’ve deleted my Twitter profile. Even though I’m already missing all the nice people I “met” on Twitter, I also have to recognize the amount of work it takes to be on several Social Medias at the same time. And as you already know, I want to focus on updating www.fiefit.dk and my Instagram profile.
Instead of Twitter I’ve decided to put some time and effort into uploading inspirational videoes to both YouTube and TikTok. Recently I’ve been told about a Danish author who’s had quite a lot of likes on TikTok. I thought that TikTok was mostly used by very young people singing and dancing. It remains to be seen whether it could be a media for FieFitRedesign too. We’ll just have to wait and see – fingers crossed 😊
Happy new years wishes from FieFit Redesign
www.fiefit.dk is also in english which enables you to share it with family and friends outside of Denmark too.
I put a lot of effort and interest in translating all the pages into english. Do enjoy.
Subscription and unsubscripton of my newsletters: to fiefit@outlook.com, If you prefer a link by text message, please let me know and I’ll be happy to text you instead.
Below you’ll find Newsletters from previous years: